Odisha may hire women firefighters

BHUBANESWAR: This may cheer the fair sex as Odisha fire service is planning to extinguish an 82-year-old rule that does not allow women to work as firefighters. Director general of police (fire service, home guards and civil defence) B K Sharma has proposed to the state home department to allow recruitment of women in the fire brigade.





Official sources said Sharma proposed to keep at least 15% reservation for women while making recruitment of firemen and station officer. “We are confident that the state government would approve our proposal and allow women to work as firefighters. We have proposed to the government to amend the fire service recruitment rules,” a senior fire service officer told TOI. Home department officials said the proposal is being examined and would soon be sent to the chief minister’s office. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik, who has been focusing on woman empowerment, is also the state’s home minister.


Though women are being hired in Odisha police, the government has never considered them during recruitment in fire service as the firefighting is a physically challenging job, involving high risk. Odisha police has around 9,000 women personnel in the total 64,000 force. At present, Odisha fire service has around 5,700 personnel, including around 500 women, who work in only operations and administrative wings. As per the state fire service recruitment policy, women are never allowed to take part in the recruitment processes of firemen and station officer (whose job profile involves combating fire mishaps and conducting rescue operations) since inception of the Odisha fire service in 1936. While firemen are equivalent to the rank of police constables, station officer are equal to the rank of sub-inspectors. Odisha staff selection commission (OSSC), a major recruiting body of state government, conducts direct recruitment of station officers whereas the directorate of fire service directly selects firemen.


Sources said only a few states including Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Delhi have women firefighters. The airport authority of India too started recruiting women fire officers a few months ago, source said. “We should allow women for the daunting firefighting job as they also serve in police, whose job profile is equally risky. These days, women are serving in different security forces in the country. Women do wrestling and weightlifting. So women should be given equal opportunity to serve in the fire service,” woman activist Anuradha Mohanty said, adding “Just like lady cops handle women, we should also have women in fire brigade.”